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Mikam Sound and Meyer Sound MILO Power Live at the Marquee 2008 in Cork
Dublin-based Mikam Sound provided full sound production for the annual ‘Live at the Marquee' festival held in Cork during June and July. Mikam owner Paul Aungier deployed a compact but powerful Meyer Sound system that rose admirably to the challenging acoustics of a huge tent with a capacity of 5,000.
In recent years, ‘Live at the Marquee' has gained a reputation for featuring very high profile acts as well as an eclectic mix of music and comedy. This year, the musical bill featured Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, Pink, Paul Weller, Neil Young, Dolly Parton, Jay-Z, Massive Attack and Meatloaf throughout the two-week event, along with superstar Irish comedian Tommy Tiernan charming the audience for three sold-out nights.
"This event is a real test for any system because there are so many engineers coming through the FOH position," says Aungier. "They all have their favorites and preferences and given the diversity of the acts they nearly all wanted something different from the system. Not one engineer at the Marquee set us a problem we couldn't deal with and the vast majority was very happy indeed with the Meyer Sound system we provided."
The main stereo sound system consisted of nine flown Meyer Sound MILO line array loudspeakers plus nine 700-HP subwoofers per side. The 700-HPs were arranged in a cardioid sub array to eliminate low-frequency leakage on and behind the stage; its effect was consistently commented upon by appreciative artists, crew and monitor engineers throughout the festival. The techniques used to create cardioid subwoofer arrangements are aided greatly by the self-powered aspect of Meyer sound's linear, low-distortion subwoofers. Cardioid sub arrays have been adopted successfully with Meyer Sound equipment in several festivals and events this summer, including the Montreux Jazz Festival.
Twelve MICA line array loudspeakers and two 600-HP subwoofers provided sidefills, along with a number of UPA-1P loudspeakers that were used as the venue required. The entire FOH system was controlled by a Meyer Sound Galileo loudspeaker management system with one Galileo 616 unit. Foldback was delivered by 12 self-powered MJF-212A stage monitors.
Acoustics in temporary structures, especially very large tents, are notoriously hard to control not least because of the "inversion factor". During setup in the daytime, the upper part of the empty room is warmer than the lower because the sun is on it. This reverses when the audience arrives. The sun is no longer on the structure; and the heat generated by the crowd at ground level makes the temperature difference between setup and show time even greater than normal. With the addition of the unpredictable reverberation characteristics caused by large areas of constantly moving smooth fabric, it is vital that the sound system provides absolute directional control so that the sound energy is kept off the reflective structure and on the absorptive crowd. According to Aungier, the MILO system at the Marquee fulfilled that brief perfectly.
"The Meyer Sound system had punch, depth, fabulous clarity and more than enough headroom to deal with anything we threw at it, plus the directional control to minimize unwanted reflections," explains Aungier. "This is what makes Meyer Sound equipment such a good investment from a business viewpoint - our business depends on being able to handle anything and Meyer Sound allows us to cover all possible bases."
13th August 2008
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